Adjudicating Groundwater: A Judge's Guide to Understanding Groundwater and Modeling is a scientific bench book primarily created for judges involved in some of the nation's most complex natural resources litigation related to groundwater. The bench book explains both the fundamentals of groundwater science and groundwater modeling and combines the expertise and experience of academic ...

Jeffrey S. Galvin

Jeffrey Galvin represents clients in civil cases, focusing on California trust litigation and probate disputes. His work often arises from conflicts between siblings, step-parents, and other family members. He practices in Sacramento County, across Northern California, and in Northern Nevada.

Jeff advises trustees and executors who find themselves in conflict with beneficiaries, and he helps beneficiaries assert their rights to a share of trust and probate estates. He prosecutes and defends trust contests and will contests, which frequently raise issues of mental capacity, undue influence, and elder financial abuse. He also represents clients in contested conservatorships, as when siblings are in dispute over an aging parent’s care and finances. Dementia, usually attributed to Alzheimer’s disease, is a major issue in many of the cases that Jeff handles.

He often works with clients who have little or no experience with legal disputes. He helps clients understand their rights and duties, looks for cost-effective solutions, pursues information through the discovery process, uses mediation when appropriate, and takes matters to trial. He brings an assertive, thoughtful and experienced approach to this emotionally-charged area of litigation. He collaborates with colleagues at the firm who handle estate planning and trust/probate administration. He speaks often on trust and estate litigation topics to estate planning attorneys and other wealth management professionals. He is the creator and editor of Trust on Trial, a blog that discusses big issues and recent developments in California trust litigation.

Jeff handles complex business litigation and contract disputes in addition to trust and estate cases, with special interest in the areas of unfair competition and false advertising.

Experience

Jeff has successfully resolved the following California trust and estate disputes:

Represented a successor trustee who defended his father’s trust and will against his step-mother’s contest on a theory of undue influence. The judge ruled in favor of Jeff’s client following a 25-day trial that featured testimony from forensic psychiatrists and other witnesses. Judgment affirmed on appeal with costs awarded to client.

Represented co-trustees sued for terminating family members who were acting as property managers of a trust-owned shopping center. After a four-day hearing, the arbitrator ruled in favor of Jeff’s clients and awarded them more than $200,000 in legal expenses.

Represented a trustee in a petition to settle an accounting. After a two-day trial, the judge overruled the objections of the trustee’s siblings/beneficiaries.

Appealed from an adverse ruling after a two-day trial and persuaded the Court of Appeal to overrule the judge’s order removing and surcharging his trustee client.

Represented an institutional fiduciary as beneficiary of a trust in a dispute over a general partner’s handling of a limited partnership that owned a valuable property near Lake Tahoe. After two-day arbitration, the judge ruled in favor of Jeff’s client.

Represented clients who alleged that family member breached his oral promises to keep assets in the family by executing will and trust favoring non-family members. Recovered valuable real estate asset for clients in settlement agreement.